1. Field
Embodiments relate to a washing machine with a balancer to reduce unbalance of an inner tub and noise generation.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a washing machine rotates an inner tub containing laundry using a driving motor, thus washing the laundry. The inner tub is rotated at a low speed in regular and reverse directions during a washing operation, and is rotated at a high speed in any one direction during a spin-drying operation.
The inner tub includes a cylindrical drum provided with opened front and rear surfaces, a ring-shaped front surface part maintaining rigidity of the drum and forming an inlet through which the laundry is put into and taken out of the inner tub, and connected to the front surface of the drum through a curling process, and a circular rear surface part closing the opened rear surface of the drum.
Further, a balancer to reduce unbalance of the inner tub and noise generation due to mismatch between the center of gravity and the center of rotation of the inner tub is mounted on the outer surface of the front surface part.
In the conventional washing machine, the front surface part made of metal is connected to the front surface of the cylindrical drum made of metal and then the balancer is mounted on the outer surface of the front surface part, thereby complicating a manufacturing process and increasing manufacturing costs of the inner tub.
Further, the front surface part is generally formed by processing a stainless steel material using a separate mold set, thereby increasing the manufacturing costs of the inner tub.
Moreover, the conventional balancer mounted on the outer circumferential surface of the front surface part serves to remove partial disposition of mass of the laundry and thus to reduce the unbalance of the inner tub, but this structure of the balancer does not directly affect improvement of washing performance.